Merry Christmas!

Here are a bunch of pictures to document Madeline's first Christmas...

Fun with Grandpa on Christmas Eve


Quick morning nap before the fun of Christmas begins


Family photo!


With Grandpa


Can I open those presents yet?



Here...let me demonstrate all the steps that go into opening a present...

Step 1: Pull the bow off the package


...getting the bow off requires much concentration


Step 2: Taste the bow


Step 3: Begin with the paper


You need to tear into it like this

...or like this


Step 4: Most of the time it is necessary to taste the paper, too



Step 5: Pull the the gift out of the box


Step 6: Taste the gift


Step 7: Play with the gift




I'm very surprised with the interest Madeline took in opening the packages. She really did enjoy tearing into the paper!

With Grandma

and with Uncle Greg


Daddy finally got one gift he's been wanting

....for me to take a nap with him!

Brian, Greg and I headed out for a nice afternoon bike ride. It has been about a year and a half since I've been on the bike and it sure felt nice to get out and ride! We do miss Tucson with its wide bike lanes and sunny blue skies. After our ride, I felt like I earned my cranberry margarita and Brian and Kay cooked up a tasty meal to top off the day.


We hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!

Christmas-Part I

We are off to Tucson tomorrow for the Christmas holiday, so we celebrated Christmas this evening with Grandma and Grandpa Handl via Skype. Madeline enjoyed playing with the paper and ribbons and even pulled the tissue out of the gift bags. I think the big hit of the evening was a soft baby doll!

Yay! It's time for presents...See my cute stocking hanging by the fireplace!




'Virtual' Grandma and Grandpa... Skype is a wonderful thing!






Chewing on my new baby doll!








My very own utensils!


We finished our pre-Christmas celebration with a visit to our neighbors Mike and Irma. They had quite the party going on with friends and family and had spent the day making tamales (which were very tasty!) Madeline made lots of friends and had plenty of smiles, despite being up past her bedtime. Their tree was beautiful and we captured some great photos of the best gift ever!

5 Months Old!

Madeline has changed so much this month and she is getting so much fun. She interacts with us more and more each day.

-She is reaching for things with great purpose and will scoot on the floor to get to a toy she wants

-She has discovered her feet and they are great playthings. She is constantly pulling her socks off and trying to get her feet in her mouth. Just this evening, she started sucking on her big toe!


-She celebrated her first Thanksgiving

-She flew twice more-once to MT and once alone with daddy to San Antonio

-She met Santa Claus!


-She went to her first Holiday party


-She has discovered her voice and is making all sorts of new noises

-She laughed

-She loves to stick her tongue out (especially for the camera!)


-She is sucking her thumb again. This is funny because its almost like she forgot how to do this and now has just remembered how. After she was born, she immediately stuck her thumb in her mouth. During our second ultrasound, the doctor was having a hard time getting a picture of her because her thumb was in her mouth and her hand was blocking her face. Watching her suck her thumb now, it is pretty clear why we couldn't get a clear ultrasound because unlike other kiddos, she likes to keep her fingers free and stretch them across her face while sucking on her thumb.


-I think she is beginning to prefer mommy and daddy and getting a bit anxious when strangers hold her. This has been a new development in the past few days.

-We left her with an evening babysitter for the first time while we went out and enjoyed Brian's holiday party with co-workers.

-She loves Peek-a-boo, and I'm not talking about the Devo song, but I am sure she will like that too.

-She sleeps on her stomach almost exclusively and has taken to tucking her feet under her belly and sticking her little bum in the air. She also is sucking her thumb when she sleeps.



It is sure hard to believe how much she has changed in 5 months!

Coming soon...
-Sitting up
-Crawling
-Walking
-AP Calculus
-Solid food

Stay Tuned!

It's been a good day....

I quit work early today and Madeline and I went to a holiday playgroup. Its been awhile since we've been able to see all our baby friends and it always amazes me how much they have all grown and changed.

Is that Santa?








Have you seen Santa?


We picked Brian up from work and finished our Christmas shopping. Even though we kept it very easy this year, it still feels good to have that done. We enjoyed our first fire of the season in our fireplace.





And the grand finale of the day was a belly full of laughs from our sweet daughter. She has laughed twice before, but never reproducibly like she did tonight. Luckily we were able to catch some of it on video. I feel like every other movie I post is of her in the bathtub, but this one is a must see! She does love her baths! I hope everyone else had as great of a day as we did.